Through Debris and Disaster
by SilverOcelot
Summary: When a monster threatens New York City, Santana sets out to save Dani without letting anyone or anything try to stop her. / The movie 'Cloverfield' followed closely with Dantana/side Fabrevans & Finchel. Finn Hudson is the cameraman. Sam, Quinn, and Rachel follow with them. Rated M mostly for language use. (Currently on HIATUS)
1. Chapter 1

_April 27th 6:42 AM_

"It's 6:42 AM, Dani's apartment in Midtown. And it's already a good day."

On more rare occasions, Santana was the first one to wake up in the morning. She managed to bear the city itself that was starting to wake up. Holding a camcorder in her hand, Santana tiptoed through the apartment shortly after waking up with the cheesiest smile on her face looking out a huge window to the bleak awaking view of dawn in New York City outside coming to life one small second at a time.

Scanning through Dani's photos on her shelves as she walked back towards the bedroom, Santana quietly let herself back into Dani's bedroom with her free hand where Dani herself was passed out from the night before. They were the best of friends ever since meeting each other in college. And back in college is when Santana fell in love with Dani. Last night, Santana was given the opportunity to prove to Dani just how much she did, and she didn't waste one moment of it.

Dani, on the other hand, always held back her lingering feelings for Santana as much as she could. Other that the fact that her family took more time than she had anticipated for them to accept her coming out to them, Dani never wanted to anchor so fast with anybody. Santana Lopez wasn't just anybody to her.

Santana was in the marketing business for schooling meanwhile Dani stuck around college to get an associate's degree. She really wanted to be a singer and was booking gigs here and there searching for a new life waiting for her on a single contract signing. Santana worked for a company named Jagged Ice, an international frozen drink company that she first became familiar with in her high school days, being on both ends of giving someone a slushee facial while receiving them back. She was promoted to take on higher marketing overseas and would be leaving, giving Dani the chance to tell Santana how she really felt about the two of them.

Friends that love each other don't just stay friends. The task was next to impossible for the both of them.

Santana smirked behind the camera finding Dani peacefully sleeping under the avalanche-like sheets and blankets on her bed, her bare back on display for Santana from the previous night's activities. It was a miracle that she was still asleep.

"Dani." Santana sang out with a whisper, laying on the bed next to her and zooming the camera in on her face. Dani awoke to the sound of Santana's soft voice, releasing a tiny moan stirring around. Her eyes barely opened to meet Santana's, and moaning again seeing the camcorder pointed at her. "Aw, she's shy."

"Ugh, Santana...what are you doing?"

"Nothing." Santana teased with an innocent voice.

"Sure, nothing." The blonde singer pulled the covers over her body more trying to attain comfort and a PG rating for the camera. "God, I can just see this ending up on the internet."

"Oh fine, cover up. See if I care. I'm interested in other things."

"Like what?"

There was a small pause while the two friends stole a long glance to each other. Their eyes formed in the shape of hearts to one another. Only Santana would really admit she was the one expressing her feelings surprisingly enough to most people.

"Like you." The words brought a blush upon Dani's cheeks along with a smile. Pushing the camera to the side for the moment, Santana leaned down to capture Dani's lips with hers for a soft good morning kiss. Neither knew what they were at this moment. Friends, more than friends, a one night stand. Once Santana took the job, it didn't matter. That's what she was silently afraid of.

"I'll make us breakfast?" Dani offered biting her lip.

"Nope, stay in bed. I'll grab something for us." Santana could sense slight hesitation between her and Dani and that was the last thing she wanted. "And I'll take this as well." She grabbed the camera and filmed a few seconds more of Dani and herself, then took off to the kitchen to fetch them a healthy breakfast with a bowl of fruit and orange juice for drinks.

With the camera still on her thanks to Santana's filming skills, Dani sat up against her bed wall and kept the sheets covering her body, still not really wearing anything underneath to both their pleasure. She flashed her smiles while eating an array of freshly washed strawberries, grapes, and raspberries. She was going to cut up pineapple had Dani not been so impatient and hungry for something on the spot.

"Ready?" Santana asked during their fruit feast and held a grape in her hand to toss to Dani. The singer smirked and nodded her head preparing to catch it. The grape was tossed perfectly by Santana only for it to hit Dani on the nose as she went to catch it, sparking up giggles from both women. "Almost had it! That was close."

"Alright, again!" Dani challenged her. "Do it really slow this time."

Santana tossed up another grape at a slower speed this time only for it to hit Dani's chin as it fell just short of her mouth. "Damn it. It's like I'm scared of it." She grabbed a strawberry instead to to eat from while Santana tossed a grape in the air for herself to catch perfectly in her mouth, and winking to Dani with confidence.

"It's all in the precision, Dani. And don't blame my throws either. I've had plenty of practice at the carnivals in Coney Island. Ring toss queen, right here." The many stuffed prizes proved her story back at her own apartment. "And cotton candy devour queen, and tilt-a-whirl survivor. Many amazing qualities about me."

"Really? Huh. I guess I haven't been there. It's been a long time since I went to a carnival." Dani's confession brought wide eyes upon Santana and brought the camera back up to her face. "What?"

"You totally can't 'what?' me right now. You have never been there? It's only like thirty minutes outside of here!"

"Shush, Santana. I've never been."

"I can't believe you've never been to Coney Island! How is that even possible?"

Dani shrugged her shoulders chuckling at how amped up Santana seemed over something small. "I don't know. It's just...I've never been. Don't know what to tell you."

"Oh, that's..." Santana faked a disappointed sigh to brighten the lightbulb in her mind and smile on her lips. "It's so much fun, D. I'm taking you. We're going."

"Oh my god, you're so excited about this." Dani popped a few grapes in her mouth and raised an eyebrow to an idea of her own. "Give me this."

"Yeah, I am. I can't wait to...hey, what are you doing?" Santana chuckled as Dani took the camcorder from Santana's hand and turned the lens around so it was pointing to Santana now, filming shots of her. "Oh, I see your game now. Just the neck up. That's what I'll consent to right now." She pulled the sheets up over her body to keep the camera from catching anything she didn't want anyone else but Dani to see.

"Pfft, no one is going to pay for that online, Santana."

"You've never been to Luscious Latinas dot com before, have you?" Santana teased and lowered the sheet down just at her cleavage to get back at Dani.

"Should I? Okay honestly though, Santana. What else?"

"What else what?"

"Other than eating cotton candy and riding tilt-a-whirls. What do you want to do today?" Dani slowly moved herself under the covers more towards Santana to zoom in on her rather than actually zooming from the camera. Their legs grazed each other underneath the sheets, making Dani blush again.

"If I answer that, we may have to turn the camera off."

"You have no complaints on this end about that." Dani chuckled and set the camera on the bed to get both of them in the shot. She handed Santana a glass of orange juice and held hers up to make a toast. "To Coney Island for the day?"

"Yes. To Coney Island." Their glasses tapped together and Santana quickly stole a kiss from Dani's lips before she could even take a sip of her juice. Santana really kept herself together after their kiss, nearly admitting to Dani that she loved her and hoped their trip to Coney Island could help her see that. They gazed into each other's eyes for a few more seconds longer, letting the camera catch one of those moments everyone wishes they could save. And this time they could.

Her hand reached over to find the button, and the camera screen went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

_May 22 6:43 PM, present time._

A loud car horn blared throughout the streets of Manhattan at a blonde woman with a blonde man following closely behind her, messing around with a camera absentmindedly in oncoming traffic.

"Is this on? I think this is on."

"Sam, look out! Will you please attention and try not to die while crossing the street? Put that camera down and let's go."

"Quinn babe, it's not my camera. I don't know if it's the on button or the zoom button."

The two hustled across the street to make it safely to the other side while Sam began to fumble around with the buttons on the camera, trying to figure it out the best he could.

"Alright, here here. I think I got it. Is this on?" The camera zoomed out enough to get Quinn in the shot carrying a few bags in her hands with her handbag around her shoulder. "Lookin' good, babe. I got it."

"Oh, perfect. And now we can have a nice record of you getting run over." Quinn sassed back to him not the least bit amused by his own negligence in the city.

"Is that supposed to be funny? Ha ha!" He faked out a laugh and kept up his pace with Quinn walking through the streets unaware of their destination. "Hey, what time is everybody starting to show up to Santana's party? It's getting late out here."

"In a few hours, Sam. That's why we have to hurry now so we can get back on time and not be late."

"Where are even going anyway?"

Quinn sighed and rolled her eyes slightly marking this as the third time she has told him and not once did he listen to her. Typical of Sam, in her eyes. "We're just going around the corner to the store! I need to get a few more things before we set up completely. Please try and keep up with me."

Sam followed her request and nearly walked beside her the whole two blocks away from where the store was, being careful as possible with Santana's camera. He had no clue what she had saved on there and really couldn't peg a reason to find out for himself.

Quinn swiftly grabbed a few extra groceries including bags of chips and balloons for Santana's going away party. Santana had taken the job offer she was given overseas. She saw it as an opportunity to better herself in her own life. She knew the risks of leaving everyone she loved behind. They were supporting her every step of the way.

"I want you to go around the party with Santana's camera and get testimonials from everyone wishing her good luck. Can I trust you to handle that?"

"Why am I doing that? It's not like this is a wedding or anything." Sam asked while the cashier bagged up their items after Quinn ended up paying for them.

"I know it's not a wedding, I said it's like a wedding."

"I don't really see why I have to do it, though. I mean, I barely know how to work this thing." Sam turned the camera towards him getting his face in the shot and hit a button on the camera, playing the tape that was already inside being taped over by Sam's recording unknown to his knowledge.

 _April 27 11:14 AM_

 _"Are you just recording this entire trip of us going to Coney Island? Is that how cheesy Santana Lopez has turned into?" Dani asked the camera pointed to her with Santana behind it. They were both riding a tram train to Manhattan over to Coney Island just a few hours after their morning together._

 _"It's not how cheesy I am, it's how innovative I am. Come on, D. This is a special day and I want to be able to relive every single second of it while I'm no longer in the country." Santana bit her lip slightly seeing the expression change on Dani's face for a split second. "Besides, you are totally going to miss me so much."_

 _"Oh please." Dani rolled her eyes playfully keeping her feelings at bay._

 _"Admit it! You just want me to pack you up into my suitcase and take you with me all the way to Japan."_

 _"No I'm not, you have no clue!" Dani nudged her shoulder enjoying the view outside the window for the moment to take her mind off of things._

 _"No clue, huh? Do you think I should not take the offer and stay home instead?"_

 _Santana asked and held the camera up to Dani's face to capture her staring outside of the window waiting for an answer. She didn't receive one right away, and that gave her hope for a little while longer.  
_

"Okay, well answer this for me. Can you see me through the viewfinder on that thing?" Quinn asked Sam holding two more bags more than before with an obvious struggle.

"Yeah, I can."

"Great! Now can you see me trying to carry these bags all by myself?" Quinn lightly shoved a bag that was full of chips and party favors into Sam's arms giving him a look that was really starting to test her patience. "Here, practice doing two things at once."

"That's a good one, that's good!" Sam chuckled along with the cashier on the other side of the counter as they left the store and hurried their way back to the apartment. The elevator was unfortunately out of service for the time being in the building and forced them up to take the stairs instead. The floor to Santana's apartment was, of course, on the top floor. "Quinn, I'm not carrying this thing around all night either."

"Yes you are. Don't even try to fight me on this one, Sam." As if climbing ten flights of stairs wasn't enough on Quinn's struggle list as it was. Keeping Sam together for the party was an even bigger hassle than she thought.

"It's such a shit job! I'm not doing it the whole night."

"Sam Evans, I have been planning this party for two whole weeks, okay? All I want you to do is help me!" Quinn finally let out some frustration on him now that they were in public around other people. Other tenants in he building could hear on the stairs what was happening outside their rooms. Quinn didn't give a shit.

"Alright, fine. I'll do it. I'm sorry." Sam gave in but secretly had a plan up his sleeve to get himself out of it like he always did. Backup plans were his best friend. "I really pissed her off." Sam muttered down into the camera with a tiny smile on his face climbing the final stairs up to Santana's apartment. Santana was out for the whole afternoon setting up her flight to Japan and giving her final goodbyes to her co-workers at the company.

Nearly twenty minutes after getting back inside Santana's apartment and helping set up the bar station, kegs, and the food area, Sam weaseled around out of Quinn's view busy with setting up decorations and approached another close friend they had in common, Finn Hudson. Everybody knew Finn for how talkative and loudmouthed he could be all the time, sometimes leaving Sam in his shadow.

"Finn hey. Listen man, I got a job for you. Interested?"

"Huh?" Finn turned around from hanging up a homemade sign for Santana reading 'We're Going To Miss You!" written across from it. "Oh, yeah. I already have a job right now."

"Yeah, but this one is important. You're going to take this camera and go around the party and film testimonials from people to give to Santana for her trip."

"I don't know, Sam. That sounds like a lot of responsibility-"

"And I think Quinn invited Rachel to be here."

"She did?" Sam nodded his head with a light smile with his plan slowly coming together.

"Yep. So here, you take this. And you can just film mine right now. Test it out."

Finn took the camera and wrapped the strap over his shoulder, working with the buttons and being gentle. "Alright, you're in the shot. Go for it."

Sam nodded again. "Alright. Umm, Santana. I have no clue what to even say right now besides congratulations. We're all really happy for you and we hope you have a safe trip. You're one of my best friends and I love you so much, and I know you'll do great things in Japan with you new job."

"Aww, that was pretty sweet of you. Hey you know, this is actually kind of fun." Finn complimented him seeing the softer side to Sam he kept hidden for special occasions.

"Yeah. You have fun with that, Finn." Sam left to help out with Quinn to help her decorate a few things and hopefully to make up for his jackass antics beforehand. The night was just beginning for them as guests started to arrive for Santana's surprise party.

* * *

"Finn, what are you doing?" Quinn stopped in her tracks while more and more guests began flooding all around the apartment while some throwback pop song played in the background.

"Oh, I'm documenting the night and stuff."

"I asked Sam to do that." Quinn frowned and looked around for Sam to give him a verbal lashing, something that was usually out of Santana's playbook.

"Oh, well Sam asked me to do it. And I've been doing a really good job. I'm taking it very serious, don't worry. Why don't I film your testimonial for Santana right now."

"Yeah, yeah sure." After calming herself down for the time being, Quinn flattened out her dress she had changed into for the party and got into the camera frame on the Finn's viewfinder. "Santana Lopez." She began with a huge smile on her face. "I can't believe you're leaving me to look after our friends all by myself. The strongest unit of the Unholy Trinity is moving on with her life and I am so happy for you. You're my best friend in the whole world, Santana, and more. I see you as the sister I've always wanted. So you better call us! Now that you have this job you can actually afford to call us. And...I hope you'll be able to come to the wedding if Sam is hinting what I think he's been hinting at."

Finn filmed Quinn's statements but slowly moved the camera off of Quinn the moment he saw Rachel Berry walk around in the background, and filmed her instead. Quinn stopped in the middle of her confession realizing who was here and decided she needed a drink as soon as possible.

"Finn. Were you even paying attention for any of that?"

"What? Oh! Yeah, that was really, really good Quinn. I got it all."

Sam appeared from out of view with a drink in his hand and one for Quinn noticing how tense she's been feeling for the past few hours. Finn had already walked around the apartment looking for Rachel and started drawing up ideas in his head on how to talk to her. They didn't know each other too well, more of a common friend with Quinn, except Finn always took an interest in Rachel. And more than half those times, Rachel was drunk out of her mind to fathom anything else going on around her.

In his travels around the party doing so, he caught a few good shots of Sam and Quinn on the dance floor with love in their eyes dancing to a song that they branded theirs. Finn thought it would be nice for Santana to rewatch her best friends falling in love, oblivious to the fact that Santana was in love herself. He finally struck up the courage to talk with Rachel after another five minutes to get reacquainted with her, yet Rachel seemed like she was really out of place barely knowing Santana.

Moments after, Quinn started to get everybody to quiet down and motioned her hand over to the people by the stereo station to turn the music down. "Shhh, she's coming up the stairs! Everybody be quiet!" The blonde whispered loudly for everyone to hear.

Not one of her easier days to deal with, Santana arrived back home to her apartment building to finalize her packing and to get ready to take off for Japan later in the night. Not once had she spoken to Dani after their perfect day together in Coney Island, and each second she kept regretting doing so. Though she had reasons, they weren't enough to convince her otherwise that it was the right thing to do.

The door opened and everybody shouted "Surprise!" loudly at Santana, who suspected something was going on when she saw more than the usual amount of cars parked in the road on her street. A large smile formed across her lips and walked back out of her apartment to hide her blush.

"No, get her in here!" Sam shouted and went out to retrieve Santana herself who happily came back inside to the large group of party who all came to see her before she left. "Speech, Santana!" Sam chanted getting others in on it. Santana had to raise her hands up and grab a beer to help deliver their wishes.

"Alright, I'll give a speech. Umm..." Santana thought for a moment and looked around the room at everybody, having not spotted Dani and wondered if she showed up at all. "Wow, shit. This is very surprising, actually."

"Well, it is a surprise party." Sam commented to get a few laughs out of the crowd and a small nudge from Santana.

"True, that's true. Um, yeah. Thank you everyone for showing up, it really means a lot to me that you're all hear. Have a good time, party hard. That's it, that's all I got!" The crowd cheered and the music kicked back on, Santana walked over to Quinn to give her a huge hug for planning everything for her and to tell her how much she appreciated it.

"Hey, were you surprised?" Finn asked Santana wanting to get her reaction on camera, which was a sip of her beer and a shake of her head.

"I was like not even surprised, Finn. Remember I was a party magnet? I always know when there's a party around, and I usually bring it with me." Santana winked into the camera without questioning at first why he had one. "Thank you for being here anyway. You know, I think I saw Rachel around here somewhere. I still think you should grow a pair and talk to her."

"Funny, I actually did before you got here. And then she walked off, but I think she had a business call."

"Right, Finn. What are you doing with a video camera anyway?" Santana started to wonder now.

"Oh you know. I'm filming goodbyes for you so you can take it to Japan with you."

"Really? Can I watch it every night too like my own home movie?" Santana teased him and looked around the party some more through the crowds saddened slightly by the results she got. "Hey Finn, do you know if Dani is coming tonight?"

"I think so. I'm sure Quinn invited her. Why wouldn't she be here?" He shrugged to his own question. Like they were speaking of the devil, Santana's attention turned to the doorway to find out that Dani had just arrived to her party a little late in a beautiful black and white dress, and Dani was rare on wearing dresses. The other fact was, Dani wasn't alone. She was standing with a guy right next to her that Santana hadn't seen all night. For the first time in the night, she was surprised.

"I'm gonna, yeah." Santana muttered and chugged the rest of her beer walking over to where Dani and her 'date' were at the door, along with Quinn who had been so relieved that she showed up just in time. It didn't really matter to Santana at this point, she had pulled Dani into a quick hug the second she walked inside.

"Hey. I'm so sorry I missed your surprise. We had cab trouble along the way getting here." Dani explained to Santana and kept a careful eye on her. She didn't want to think about this being the last time she was going to see Santana and did her usual; bury her feelings back inside and keep them there. "This is Brody, by the way."

Santana raised her eyebrow to Brody's sudden handshake and put on her best fake smile to him. She could care less who this guy was, more to the reason why he was here at her party with the girl she was head over heels for. She was more focused on Dani. She was beyond uncomfortable being there with another guy at Santana's party. The thing was, Dani wasn't even into guys. Everyone could sense something was completely wrong.

"Who is that guy? I think he just said I was cute." Sam interrupted Santana after Quinn led Dani and Brody through the party to grab food at the buffet she was proud to have arranged.

"Who knows. I'll be around." Santana walked off to her own section of the party to grab herself a heavier drink. She reminded herself to thank Quinn again for setting up an amazing bar with such a display of alcohol. It was her party, no one would care if she took a whole bottle of fireball whiskey for herself to indulge in.

Finn didn't take too long to look around the party again for Rachel and wandered off on his own doing his own documenting. Another ten minutes went by and Finn found himself filming Dani with Brody while Santana watched them from a distance, taking a swig of her drink every so often to help numb the pain that was building up inside fo her.

"Santana hey, are you alright? You're just on your own over here like missing your own party, it seems like."

"Finn, is that...my camera?" Santana finally picked up on it from a black mark that smudged the side she did from dropping it the second time she used it.

"I don't know. Sam gave it to me, why?"

"Did either of you switch out the tape because I had my own tape in there."

"Uh..." Finn groaned out and looked for a button to open the tape holder.

 _April 27 11:23 AM_

 _"What other rides are there besides the tilt-a-whirls? I'm praying that I don't wind up puking after one." Dani chuckled holding onto a railing on the tram station train._

 _"You won't puke, don't worry. The roller-coasters are insanely fun. But I mean, the tea cup rides we can skip." Santana held the camera up again to Dani's face as she wanted as much of Dani she could get to take with her. "Last time, Sam spun us around the tea cup so fast, I nearly punched him. Except I couldn't because I was so dizzy. Try imagining being stupid drunk and stumbling with zero alcohol in your system."_

 _"What fun is that? Fireball whiskey is the best drink to do shots to." Both women exchanged quick glances at each other again, like they could both see the day they were bound to have together. It was just the two of them together, no one else knew where they were.  
_

 _The day belonged to them, and it would remain that way forever.  
_

Finn felt slightly guilty seeing a tape inside and giving Santana the 'I'm really sorry for doing this to you on accident' look. "The tape was...in here...when I got it. I didn't."

Santana nodded her head in understanding and wasn't blaming Finn for anything wrong. "It's fine, it's nothing. It's stupid."

"Are you sure you're okay? We haven't been like hanging out or anything." Finn was met with a sad smile on Santana's face, another odd thing he could add to the list tonight. She offered him the bottle of fireball in return and it rose his spirit more than she knew. "Yeah, that's more like it." The sudden rush of alcohol in his system gave him an idea and handed Santana back the bottle and walk over to where Dani was standing with Brody. "Hey, Dani. I'm filming goodbyes for Santana. Do you want to say something?"

Dani looked over being caught a little off guard and hadn't seen Santana since arriving. "Oh, Finn. Um hey Brody, can you grab me a drink real fast? This will just take a second. Do we have to do it right here?"

"No, the kitchen is empty." Dani followed Finn away from the rest of the party to a small little kitchen that Santana had in her apartment, where they cooked countless meals for each other over the time she lived here. This was tough for Dani because deep down she didn't want to say goodbye to Santana at all, and her face dropped to the floor thinking about how this was their last night together for who knew how long.

"Santana...I really didn't want to do this on camera." Dani admitted while she searched for the right words to say. "I can't tell you how much I'm really happy for you. You've worked so hard to get this job and it makes me happy to see you achieving your goals. And I'm really, really going to miss you. I..." Dani was cut off by Santana herself making her way into the shot. It saved Dani from the tears that were forming up in her eyes.

"Hey. Can we please talk outside for a minute?" Santana pulled Dani away from the kitchen on a little tipsy mission of her own. She couldn't take it anymore by herself watching the girl she loved stand next to someone else. Meanwhile, Finn went over to Sam playing a game of foosball to tell him everything that happened, and sent Finn to spy on them while he played.

Finn peaked around the corner with the camera in his hand staying hidden from sight while he watched on Santana and Dani exchanging a few words to each other in the hallway.

"You never even called me, Santana! What else was I supposed to think after that?"

"Did you think when you go and bring some random ass guy to my party as your date when that's not his true purpose of being here?"

"You are so ridiculous. He's just a friend, not my date! You haven't talked to me in weeks since then." Dani tried explaining to her until she noticed Finn off to the side. Santana turned around to see who she was looking at making her even angrier until Quinn pulled him inside and told him to back off. "You know what? Fine, I'll leave. It'll hurt me more if you leave first." Dani pushed herself back into the party from the hallway with Santana following behind her.

In the kitchen, Quinn was coerced into spilling the beans to Sam and Finn who cornered her for information, and made them promise not to tell anyone else that Santana and Dani slept together a few weeks back.

"Good luck in Japan, Santana." Dani said to Santana, receiving a cold shoulder in response.

"Good luck tonight, Brody." Santana retorted and walked off to the balcony of her apartment to grab some air, leaving Dani nearly heartbroken and speechless at the same time. Luckily Santana found her bottle of fireball on the way out to help ease the pain, and it didn't help her situation out much when Quinn sent Sam and Finn to go cheer her up. "Guys, I really don't want to be bothered with right now. Just let me drink in peace."

"Give me five minutes to help so Quinn doesn't kill me?" Sam offered and sat down with Finn on the balcony with her, overlooking the lights illuminating New York City. "Quinn told us everything. We begged it out of her. What happened?"

Santana shook her head and took another sip from the bottle.

"Fine, fish lips. Dani and I slept together and I didn't call her back after that. I'm leaving for Japan tomorrow. There was nothing I can do. Long distance would not have worked between us. We're not even together anyway. Just two separate people..."

"Two separate people who look like they belong together. Trust me, I saw it all night." Finn spoke up to defend both parties. "I saw you look at Dani through this camera the way Sam and Quinn looked at each other all night. Like a small spark that needs a gust of wind to pick it up."

Santana shook her head again. "Maybe I'm just not good enough to be with her. After all this time.."

"Nope, you see, that's the thing." Sam interrupted. "I know you well enough to know that when you want something, you go for it. You did it with this job and now you have to do it with Dani. She is crazy about you, San. And you're in love with her. It's literally that simple." Sam went out with his own tipsy speech and took another sip of his beer to justify his words. "Dani Harper loves you. And you know what you have to do? Just say 'Forget the world, and hang on to the people that you care about the most. And-"

Suddenly the entire ground shook below them. The three friends found themselves freaking out on top of the balcony afraid it might collapse beneath them. Finn looked towards the city itself watching every single building loser power all at once.

"What the hell was that?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Holy shit, what the hell was that?"

"Some sort of earthquake or something?"

"Everyone, quiet down so we can hear!"

Santana with Sam and Finn had crawled back inside the apartment after the earthquake hit and to the rest of the party. The lights had surged off to back on again. The first thing they did was to turn the television set on to the news to see if they're were any updates on what actually happened. Sam found Quinn and had his arms wrapped around her grateful that she was okay and no one was hurt.

"Guys, come on." Finn reiterated one last time once the volume was cranked up on the television for them to hear.

"We're receiving word all over the city that a possible earthquake has erupted throughout the entire city." The news anchorwoman read from her paper. The cameraman cut to live footage as she continued to speak. "What we're being told now is that an a large oil tanker might have capsized just right next to the Statue of Liberty."

"That's really close." Sam muttered and turned towards Santana. "You think we could see that from the roof? We should go check." Santana shrugged her shoulders with her mind focusing on maybe getting to lower ground rather than higher. Curious herself, she followed everyone up the stairs to the rooftop of the apartment building and looked out towards the Statue of Liberty.

"I'm not seeing shit, you guys. It was probably just a regular earthquake and now we're fine." Santana thought of where Dani was and suddenly felt a shift change in her mind set. One argument was nothing, Santana could let it slide just as long as she was safe.

"I don't know, it felt like tremors. Look, some of the lights are still on. Probably a few transformers blew but nothing else." Sam noted looking as confused as everyone else.

"Hey Santana." Finn pointed the camera to her to lighten her mood. "I guess you should've left town a little bit earlier, huh?"

"Shut up, Finn."

A few cries filled the night air when a building on the far left out in the city exploded and brightened up the somewhat dark city. People were freaking out around them, Santana heard a few people arguing whether or not it was another terrorist attack. She doubted it, but nothing else seemed to logical at this point.

Her eyes widened when she saw flaming debris from the explosion take flight in the sky and looked like they were miniature meteors headed straight towards them.

"Go, go, go! Everyone get back inside!" Sam shouted and darted back towards the rooftop door as fast as he could, Santana and Finn following close behind him. They didn't stay inside for too long. The fire alarms started to ring through the building, what was left of the party who stayed in the room flooded the staircase. Soon enough, the entire party rushed out the front door onto the streets of New York City, where hundreds of other citizens were fleeing as well.

Santana took the time to pull out her phone to text Dani and pushed their problems aside to see if she was okay. Of course, she wasn't getting a signal at her spot.

"Where's Sam? Has anyone seen Sam?" Quinn had asked her and Finn looking around for him through the waves of people rushing through the streets.

"He was just here a second ago." Finn answered her looking around and finding Rachel standing next to Quinn who seemed way out of her drunken daze from the party.

"Guys!" Santana shouted and pushed her friends back to the sidewalk to protect them. Turning the camera towards the street, Finn caught a massive object flying in the sky that slammed into the side of the building and into the street, dragging itself through the middle and destroyed any cars that were in the way. When the object came to a halt, everyone could see that it was the head belonging to the Statue of Liberty.

Nearly everyone pulled their phones out to get a picture of what was before them while others were still screaming to how it even got their.

Around the severed head appeared Sam and ran up into Quinn's arms, apologizing for being gone without her.

"Quinn! Quinn, I'm so sorry. I was looking for your car to get us out of here. Did you leave your keys upstairs in the-"

The ground shook again in another small earthquake below their feet. Their eyes adverted to down the street where the Statue of Liberty head came from to see a small building collapse. Finn swore he caught something moving on camera.

"Holy shit! Did you guys see that? Did you guys just see that!? It's alive!"

"What, Finn?"

"Oh jeez, how do I explain it. Wait, wait. I think I got it on camera. Let me see." Finn brought the camera over to the curious group of people, and needed Santana's help on how to find which button to use to play back any video.

 _April 27 11:33 AM  
_

 _The thin ice that was keeping the tension between Santana and Dani was no longer stable, and Dani ended up caving in with her thoughts._

 _"You know, I really think this job in Japan is maybe what you need to help you fulfill your life. It's gonna be a great opportunity for you."_

 _"I mean, yeah. But I don't even speak the language." Santana held the camera up to Dani's semi smiling face watching the sun gently hit her face. "And you know my language barriers. English, Spanish, and straight up bitch."_

 _"Oh please don't bring Snixx out on camera."_

 _"Oh Snixx is quite comfortable in her cage right now. Don't tempt her." Santana said sticking her tongue out to Dani._

 _"How hard could learning Japanese be though?"_

 _"It's Japanese, D. So, like, Japanese hard."_

 _Dani could only laugh at the answer she got while Santana filmed it on camera, wanting to hit the replay button on her smile and listen to her laugh all day long. "It'll be fine, San. Really."_

 _"Do you really think I should go?"_

 _It was, again, the question neither of them wanted to answer to each other. Dani kept her smile and gaze on Santana refusing to cross over to that side on their day together. If there was any shot at love for her, Santana was it. And she didn't want to hold Santana back from her dreams by any means._

 _Neither of them answered to each other with words. Their actions spoke for themselves._

"Jesus..." Santana whispered after watching the footage playback on her camera and tried her cell again for Dani, yet again nothing was working for her reception. More panic began to spread with everyone else watching the video over and seeing the exact same thing that Finn saw.

"Alright, everyone quiet down!" Sam took the lead and shouted over everyone. "We don't know what we just saw on that camera. The point is, it's still here. So we get the hell out of Manhattan. Now!"

While it seemed as though they were in all in agreement, Santana and Sam talked over with a few others to decide which bridge to take to which city. Sam thought Brooklyn was the fastest to someone's suggestion of Delancey and argued lightly about which one was closer. Sitting on a curb to the side was Quinn who was comforting Rachel. Rachel was covered in smoke and dust from attempting to leave the city herself.

"Hey, what's going on?" Quinn asked.

"Um, I think we're all trying to get out of the city. Is she okay to come with us?"

"It was eating people." Rachel spoke out softly but with a great amount of fear in her voice glancing between Quinn and Finn. "It was eating...everyone."

"Okay, come here. I'll walk with you." Quinn offered, holding Rachel's nonstop shaking hands.

They began to move carefully through the streets of the city along with hundreds of others who looked as though they had the same idea in their minds. On one street, a taxi had a fire coming from the inside due to the damage done to it. Clouds of smoke poured into the sky from broken up buildings. Stores and street cafes were emptied and abandoned by others.

Right outside the bridge was a small tent set up by an ambulance team looking to help and aid injured civilians. One couple was put into hospital beds to the side with an EMT calling out for an IV. Two officers in the street waved their arms to keep the crowd moving, warning them if they're not injured that they have to keep moving.

Santana pulled her phone out one more time to see that her messages still had failed to send to Dani. Her heart beat picked up in worry about where she was and if she was okay. She mentally kicked herself in the head for leaving with their last encounter having to be a fight. Right now, she would give anything to take that back.

"Finn, is your cell phone working? Is anyone's cell phone working right now?" Santana called out to keep her spirits on a calmer path.

"Shit, I left my in your apartment." Finn answered checking his pockets. "The transformers are probably blown, no cell reception in the city. We might get reception on the bridge or out of the city."

Santana frowned at the answer with the quick idea in her head to break away from the streets and go find Dani herself. She wasn't completely ruling that out just yet.

Behind her, Sam had checked out Rachel to see if she was going to be okay. "We're almost out of here. See, the bridge is just up ahead. We'll be safe there."

"Rachel, hey. You saw it. What the hell was that thing?" Finn asked her, getting a frightened stare off of Rachel's face into the camera lens.

"Not now, Finn." Quinn urged him.

"Right, sorry."

* * *

"Please move in an orderly manner. Continue moving south towards Brooklyn. I repeat, do not stop. Keep moving. There will be instructions on the Brooklyn side." A police helicopter hovered to the side of the bridge instructing people to keep moving as calm as they could. Order had to be maintained somehow.

The group of friends kept quiet with one another, keeping as close as possible so they wouldn't get lost. At one point, Finn drifted to the side of the bridge with a few other stragglers to capture footage of the capsized oil tanker that was reported on the news that was still mildly burning. And to the left of that, another helicopter hovered around the Statue of Liberty with its spotlight on, giving everyone the image of the monument with its head missing.

No one really noticed except Santana who kept a close eye on him, and especially her video camera.

"You still filming?"

"Yeah. People are going to want to know, you know? How it all went down."

Santana didn't think it that way. "You can just tell them how it all went down, Finn. Really."

"No, no. People need to see physically. They're gonna end up watching this and wondering what the hell happened through our own eyes."

Finn almost didn't get to finish his sentence when a ringtone went off on Santana's phone. She lifted it to her face to see Dani's name on the screen calling her and immediately picked up the call in a flash.

"Dani? Dani?" Santana spoke quickly to keep the call alive.

"Guys, hey! Santana got a hold of Dani, wait up!" Finn shouted to the others who were up ahead following the group. Quinn and Rachel had heard him, but not Sam who kept on budging his way through people.

"Dani, are you okay? I've been trying to reach you for the past half hour almost. Can you hear me?" Santana could barely hear Dani on the other end over the helicopters flying around and announcements being made. Finn's shouting didn't help too much either.

Quinn called out for Sam to stop walking ahead, it was too loud for him to hear her or wonder why they suddenly stopped behind them. He tried pushing his way back through and ended up finding a light pole to climb up and hang on.

"Dani, listen to me. You have to calm down, okay? Where are you?" Santana paused for the moment and shook her head nervously. "What do you mean you can't move?"

The call was dropped unexpectedly when the bridge began to shake, causing people to start panicking and fleeing left and right to get off of the bridge. Santana nearly lost her nerves calling out Dani's name numerous times into the phone for another answer. She wanted to hear the sound of her voice one more time just in case something happened.

"Why did you guys stop!?" Sam screamed over the crowd attempting to get himself heard and noticed.

"Santana got Dani on the phone!" Quinn yelled back to him.

"What!?"

"Santana got..." Quinn started to answer him again and froze up in her place along with many others on the bridge at the sight above them. Finn held the camera up to catch the sight with fear flowing in him as well. "Sam, watch out!" A large tail-like object hovered above the bridge before crashing down onto the bridge, destroying it in two, and taking Sam Evans down with it. Quinn continued to scream Sam's name over and over, running towards the broken half of the bridge. Rachel gripped onto Quinn's hand to keep her from doing so.

Sam Evans was gone.

Santana and Rachel both led Quinn off of the bridge back into the city with them before the bridge could fully collapse into the water. With Finn following, they fled down a few blocks away from the bridge to escape whatever they just encountered with. Finn wanted to check back on the camera again without getting killed himself when they came to a stopping point.

Their stopping point came in front of a random shop to the side of the street. Quinn couldn't take anymore running and moved to the side to let out some of her emotions of watching Sam being taken from her right in front of her. Rachel took the initiative this time to pay Quinn back and help her calm down. Santana didn't know what else to think, that this could be their last night alive.

"It came out of nowhere! He was there and then he was gone. And, and...oh my god, Sam!" Quinn cried into Rachel's shoulder over the loss of Sam.

Santana felt at a loss of words about losing someone she knew for years and years. Her phone came back into her hand nearly dropping it and turned it on to contact Dani again, but nearly threw the device against the ground.

"My battery's dead..." She needed Dani. She needed to know she was okay and needed to be with her to help ensure that for herself. The sound of glass breaking made Finn jump and look across the street at a few people throwing trash cans through the windows of an electronic store.

"Whoa, what the fuck...Okay, now we really should get the hell out of here. Find some way out of Manhattan or just lay low somewhere. Anywhere." Finn suggested. Santana barely listened and dashed across the street towards the store to everyone else's surprise. "Santana, wait!" Finn called for her. "I'll be right back, I'll get her." He ran across the street to follow Santana into the store, dodging others that looted the store of flatscreen TV's and other devices while others came in to do the same.

On one of the monitors the store had on display, the news was on. Finn caught footage of the tail crashing onto the bridge from a helicopter camera above. The camera then cut to live footage hovering above skyscrapers over the city and flashlights beaming down on a very large creature slowly moving in its own place. His jaw dropped to what he saw, and moved to the exit of the store to look in the direction he knew the structures were at. And it wasn't a dream, it was real. He filmed until the camera got the monster move in and out of the view for a few seconds.

He quickly rushed back into the store looking for Santana, who was scalping the walls for a portable charger looking for a new battery for her phone. Mental note, she thought, to upgrade to the latest model of cellular devices when this mess was all over.

"Santana, we really need to get the hell out of here fast. It is not safe here. We need to leave. Santana, are you listening to me? We have to get out of here." Finn stressed over and over to Santana. She wouldn't budge from her objective searching wall after wall to maintain hope. And she found it. With slight superhuman strength, Santana ripped the package open in the store and plugged her phone inside to get it to charge immediately.

"Santana..." She heard Finn's voice again, except this time it was out of pure fear. Along with some of the store looters, Finn looked up at the televisions displaying more live footage to catch sight of the monster that was terrorizing the city. The cameras panned out of view to get a full shot, still some buildings blocked the entire view. From the ground side, military vehicles rushed towards the creature with heavily armored trucks and hundreds of foot soldiers to contain the situation.

Tiny creatures began falling off of the monster that seemed latched on and attacked the soldiers. Many were starting to believe it was an alien attack. Gunfire took over the sound on the television that could be heard from the store. Rachel and Quinn bolted into the store looking for Santana and Finn to help escape from being put into any more danger.

"What are you guys doing? We have to leave and get out of here!" Rachel flew in from the streets and walked over to Santana but was met with a hand being held up to her.

"Stop! Just give me a minute!" Santana pleaded. She had enough battery charged up to turn her phone back onto and rush to the one voicemail that was left on it from Dani. She held the phone up to her ear and listened in, feeling her heart crumble every second hearing Dani's helpless voice on the other end.

 _"Santana! Santana! I can't...Oh fuck, I can't move. It fell. My apartment... The whole wall fell on me. I'm bleeding and I can't move...Shit! Help me, Santana! Help me..."_ Dani was trapped and alone, and Santana only blamed herself for letting Dani leave back at the party. There was only one thing she could do and it was the only thing Santana wanted to do at this point. Not to flee the city, not to escape whatever the hell was attacking their city, none of that unless she had Dani safe with her.

* * *

"I got your message and I'm on my way to you right now. Just stay calm, D. Stay calm. I promise you I'm going to be there as fast as I can. I promise." While Santana was leaving a voicemail back for Dani, the small group followed her down a side street where not many people were on, most of them heading towards the next closest bridge out of the city.

"Can you please talk some sense into her?" Rachel asked Finn while she consoled a very quiet Quinn, quietly striving to keep herself together in one piece.

"Santana. Dani lives all the way in Midtown. Do you know what else is in Midtown right now? Some really horrific shit!" Finn exhaled, speaking up for all their sake. Plus, he wouldn't totally admit that he wanted to look strong and brave for Rachel to impress her, though the timing wasn't necessarily the best.

"This is insane!" Rachel shouted and threw her hands up in the air for slight dramatic effect. "We are not going to go near that thing! We are not going to the middle of the damn city!"

Santana halted her feet against the ground and turned towards her friends. Most of the time, this meant that someone was going to get a verbal lashing, usually from her Snixx side. Everyone knew that. As much as she appreciated how long they've stuck together with her, she couldn't take on any more burdens.

"No, we're not. I'm going alone." Santana crowed. "You're not coming with me. Look, there." She pointed to a small alley that showed a group of people being lead safely by a ton of military personnel. "Go with them, you'll be safe, okay? You can't talk me out of doing this so just go. This is not me being batshit crazy or about impressing anyone. I know what I'm doing and...you just can't talk me out of this."

"I'm coming with you." Quinn spoke up before anyone else could breathe a word in. "I'm not letting you go by yourself." Deep down, her heart was still aching. If there was a chance they could save Dani, she wanted to help do so and not have anyone else go through the experience she was dealing with now.

"You guys, did you not hear Dani's message?" Rachel reminded to them. "Look, even if we get to her place, there's a chance that she could possibly be-"

"Shut the hell up." Santana glared Rachel down in the middle of the street, saving her strength for the journey rather than taking her anger and frustration out on the girl because she couldn't blame Rachel either for what she was feeling. It was insane. Her idea was completely insane. Santana was willing to take this chance to risk her life to see Dani if this was maybe their last night alive.

Quinn ended things before they could get started and pulled Santana into for a quick hug to let her know she wasn't alone and wasn't ever going to be alone as long as she was there. They started to walk again through the city with Santana navigating what would be the best possible route to get there on foot without running into any trouble.

"This is totally insane!" Rachel continued on talking to Finn seeing how he was the only one there that would listen to her at the moment. "Does she not realize how deranged this is!?"

"Santana, come on, can we talk about any of this?" It was useless again for Finn to grab her attention. He knew nothing was going to stop her at this point. "Have you tried calling the police or even the fire department to see if someone else can get there instead?"

"Yes, Finn. I already dialed every possible goddamn emergency number there is and I couldn't get through!"

"Okay. It just seems a little ridiculous that we have to be the ones to..."

Finn was cut short when a few hundred yards ahead of them, the monster's foot stomped down to the pavement and shook the city again. Finn held the camera up to get footage, meanwhile a squad of soldiers rushed behind them with guns firing and rockets being shot towards the monster to bring it down.

The group split up to both sides of the street to avoid getting in the way of the military and especially the armored tank that came rolling up and blasting its ammunition away. Finn was caught underneath a car to protect himself and looked over on the other side of the street to Santana shouting something to Quinn and Rachel over the sounds of gunfire.

As the soldiers spread out and fully rushed in after the creature to take it down, Santana led the two safely across the street to grab Finn and point to the subway entrance as their escape to get off the streets since it was clearly too dangerous to travel on the ground. On three, Santana shouted for them to dart to the subway entrance while avoiding contact with the monster or the military.

Santana, Rachel, and Quinn raced down the subway stairs as fast they could, Finn slowed himself purposely as the monster stomped its foot down right in the middle of the street, lean its head down, and screech loudly through the city and long enough for him to get it captured on the camcorder. Before they knew it, three huge explosions were set off causing Finn to lose his footing on the stairs and stumbled all the way to the floor with concrete caving them inside.

For now, they were safe.


	4. Chapter 4

"Finn! Finn, are you alright?" Santana rushed quickly to his aid and helped him up before any concrete could topple on top of him. "Come on, up up up." She helped him to his feet while he checked to make sure the camera was still around his shoulder and not at all damaged.

"Quinn, Rachel, are you okay? Let's take a few minutes to catch our breath. We're safe down here. I think."

They could catch their breath in the subway, sit down to rest from running all over the city. For Santana, rest was the near last thing on her mind. Her friends took time to sit down and rest against some of the pillars. Her feet barely stopped moving as she paced around the subway for an escape plan, or something to urge everyone to keep moving right away.

"Wait. I think there's a staircase over there that can lead up to the other side of the street linking to the next subway exit. We could wait it out and then maybe-"

"We're not going back out on the streets, Santana. No way in hell." Quinn defended having enough of her share of monsters for the night. "Just...no."

"But if we wait out..."

"Santana, please." Finn budged in innocently. "We're with you, okay? I am with you on this. But you have to listen to what's going on out there right now."

And she did. They all did. More gunfire popping every other second, the ceiling dust falling onto their heads from the vibrations of chaos above. It was a battlefield up top, and a fight for survival down below.

"Shit!" Santana kicked over a stack of newspapers that were piled up on the ground next to a bench. She was beyond the point of frustration. Not to mention, Santana felt helpless. And that was the emotion she hated the most. All she new was that Dani was out there alone and hurt, not being able to move or call out to her for help. All she could think about was the last thing she said to her, and how it clearly hurt Dani more than she thought it would. Then came regret, and her mind became lost with silent tears falling down her cheek.

"Santana..." Quinn pulled Santana aside into a tight hug to comfort the both of them together. It was another chance for Quinn to keep herself strong for Sam, it was what he would've wanted her to do. Gunfire and screeches became faint as soon as she heard silent whimpers into her shoulder coming from Santana. "It'll be okay, Tana. I promise. We'll get to her, we'll find her, and we'll all get the hell out of here."

The group took a break, they needed one desperately. Quinn stayed with Santana to keep her company, and secretly there to make sure that she wouldn't storm off by herself again. Best friends stick together, always.

"Hey, you holding up okay?" Finn noticed Rachel acting really silent and distant from the group since walking through the alleyways. And that was just the kind of guy Finn was and what he was known for. Being the one person to check on everyone and see if his friends were in the right state of mind. That also depended on if he thought Rachel saw them as friends rather than friends of friends.

"I shouldn't even be here. Not down here in the subway fearing for my life that could end at any second. This isn't right, not for any of us." Her response was cold, but it was the same thought that lingered in each of their minds. No one deserved this, asked for whatever the hell brought this monster upon them to destroy their city and their lives.

"You didn't have to be. You had your chance to leave us in the alley, be anywhere else except here with us."

"Yeah..." Rachel sighed thinking about where she would be if she had escaped with the crowd. The answers came back few, either dead or still hiding somewhere. As long as that thing was still out there, no one was safe. "There's nowhere else for me to go. I was supposed to meet up with some friends after the party and work on our auditions for Broadway. I pray they're okay too."

They both shared a short gaze with each other, like they made the realization that they're all they had with each other. Their moment ended shortly once Santana stood up to her feet again and walked over to a map of the Manhattan with subway stations on it.

"I got it!" Santana looked for Midtown on the map pointing to it with her index finger. "We can walk along the subway tracks all the way to this station, and then that's like, shit, maybe twenty blocks from where Dani's apartment is. It's worth a shot, right?"

"There has to be another way than to just walk the subway tracks, Tana."

Santana shook her head. "Yeah...and that's to try our luck again up top. And we agreed not to do that ever again if we want to stay alive that much longer. I'm sorry, Q. I'm out of options at this point and this seems like it could be the best one. As far as we fucking know right now, we're good down here. No monsters or flying statue heads." Santana fidgeted with her phone, it wasn't leaving her hand anytime soon just in case Dani managed to get a call or text out to her again.

"I don't mind walking the tunnels. Who else is going to think to use them, right? Let's go for it." Once Finn agreed, it wasn't hard for Quinn and Rachel to be on board with the idea as well. "Too bad we can't just take the subway there. This monster is ruining everything."

The four friends dropped down from the platform onto the subway tracks to walk through the tunnels. The lights above flickered, they were always kept low during rides and bright enough to allow the casual person to see outside the windows when they were moving.

"Damn it..." Rachel muttered after tripping over something in the dark. "It's too dark to see down here. I don't suppose anyone has a flashlight on them? Or a lighter?"

"I don't smoke. There's a flashlight on the camera actually." Santana dipped back to Finn's surprise and held the camera down for her to switch on a super bright flashlight. "And you all thought I wasted money on this thing. It's saving our asses now. Right, Q?"

"You pick the weirdest times to be a smartass, Santana." Quinn shot back to her though did enjoy seeing her own two feet in front of her while they walked through the tunnels endlessly. And it made her smile seeing Santana flash a wink to her to keep their minds clear and focused on surviving, not on the pain they were pushing down deeply.

"I'll say. And I've got some great footage on this thing for the government to keep hidden from the public." Finn added in as he continued to film the current location they were for for whoever would watch. "Hey, where do you think this creature came from? Like...it came out of the water. Has it been down there this whole time? Why come up now?"

No one knew, not even the government could place where it arrived from. Finn was right, it was like it appeared from out of the ocean out of nowhere and attacked like in actual monster movies.

"Maybe it came from another planet and flew here like Superman. Oh man, that would be awesome." Finn played out the image of Superman fighting a giant monster in his head, only to have it replaced by another thought. "Or Godzilla, holy shit. Godzilla versus whatever the hell is out there."

"Please don't give Hollywood any ideas." Rachel sighed out. She would actually love to play a part in a movie or anything to get experience under her belt.

After about twenty minutes more of walking, they took another rest at the next stop to see where they were at and how much farther they had to go. Santana saw that they only two more stations to stop at before coming close to where she wanted to be. Finn stood by Rachel following his instinct, and in her mind she was getting a feel for him that he wasn't half bad for being someone who talked a lot.

Santana pulled out her phone to look through her pictures that she took of her and Dani on their special day together in Coney Island. Her favorite one was the classic loving kiss at the top of the Ferris Wheel. That day stuck inside her mind, because it was one of those days everybody dreams about in their heads. A day where no one except Dani knew where she was, all her problems dissolved into thin air, and not a second went by where she didn't have a smile on her face. Watching Dani experience Coney Island with her was something she would cherish forever, and she would be damned if it would be her last night alive to experience something like that again.

She snapped out of her daze to Quinn's hand lightly squeezing her shoulder, having noticed Santana went completely out of reality. "Are you okay?"

Santana shook her head slowly getting caught up in her emotions again. "I can't stop thinking about how the last words I said to Dani was 'Good luck tonight, Brody.' and nothing else. The last fucking words...and I hurt her."

Quinn nodded her headed in understanding. "I know how that feels. When I think about some of the things I've said to Sam..." Quinn trailed off as soon as guilt built up within her. "Dani knows you didn't mean that."

"Yeah. But Sam knew you loved him with all your heart. I've had more than my fair share of chances to tell Danielle how I really feel about her and I didn't. Now look at me, Q. I'd give anything right now..."

Another station they passed with silence, and things tended to be awkward when that happened. Finn wandered his eyes around the subway with a new sense of fear put into his mind.

"Shit. Remember like a couple of years ago they had reports of that crazy arsonist guy who lit homeless people on fire down in the subways?"

"Fucking hell, Finn." Santana lightly snapped at him. "That shit is maybe not the best topic for conversation while we're walking in a subway. Fuck." Her reaction got a slight giggle from Rachel with a cheeky smile on her face, one of the genuine ones that Finn has seen on her all night.

"Sorry. It just slipped into my head. I hope he still isn't out there doing that."

The group quickly shut up when a loud screeching noise echoed throughout the tunnels and froze each of them in their tracks. Their heads turned behind them looking for a sign of trouble. There was nothing, not that they could see through the entirety of darkness.

Soon, walking turned into extreme power walking. Another screech rang out that sent chills up each of their spines and that's when they mentally agreed that the subway fun should definitely be done and over with.

"I don't know what that is but we're getting the hell out of here at the next station. I see it up ahead there." Santana pointed out seeing a dimly lit red exit sign.

"Holy shit!" Rachel shrieked out looking down to her feet as a large pack of rats appeared running along their feet. "Oh my god, this is gross. This is so gross."

"That's weird. They're all running in the same direction, like they're running away from something." Finn figured out and looked to the direction in which the rats were coming from. Beyond the small portion of light he could see, there was nothing. And then the screeching noise came again. "I can't see a thing."

Santana moved next to him again and pressed a button on the camera to switch the flashlight over to the night vision so he could see. "God, I love this camera so much. Do you see anything now?"

What Finn saw through the viewfinder on the camera crushed all of his scariest nightmares, and made horror movies seem laughable to him. They crawled all along the ceiling above them in the dark, looking like mini crawler versions of the monster itself.

"Okay we need to start running right now. Just fucking run right now! Go!" Finn yelled at the top of his lungs, receiving no hesitation from anyone as they started to run in the opposite direction through the darkened tunnels. The station was right there ahead of them if they could make it.

One crawler took the lead over its pack and lunged forward, knocking Quinn down by her legs and crawled on top of her looking to bite. Though it was unsuccessful, with Santana Lopez stopping along with them and delivering a full force kick to the creature to get it off her friend. She wasn't planning on losing anyone else tonight. Not her best friend too.

Santana helped Quinn quickly to her feet and climbed up to the platform with her to open the door they needed to get through to escape through. Another crawler lunged forward and tackled Rachel to the ground, raising its jaws up to bite down. Screaming, Rachel felt the creature nearly bite her until Finn charged and shouldered it off of her, being thankful of all his years playing football in high school. "Let's go!"

Rachel hurried up the platform and through the door, with Finn jumping up and rolling through behind her. Santana and Quinn quickly slammed the door shut and brought the lock down, ensuring their safety for a little while longer.

 _April 27 11:55 AM_

 _"We're almost there, D!" Santana cheered excitedly as the tram train reached another part of its route over a body of water. She knew all too well exactly how long it took to get there and which sights to watch out for. "I swear, this is going to be the best day ever."_

 _"You keep hyping it up like it's going to be. I'd hate to be let down."_

 _"Oh, really?" Santana moved the camera up to Dani's face before bringing herself into the shot. Dani saw this coming from a mile away and refused to lose this early on. Santana's face went serious for the first time that day, because she had been smiling all day otherwise, and prompted Dani to throw up the same look to match. "Come on, Danielle. I would never let you down."_

 _Dani quirked an eyebrow up, as in a 'tip of the hat' kind of gesture to Santana using her full name on her like it was something they did together. Keeping as serious as possible until one of them caved and smiled. The camera caught most of it, and it most definitely caught the slight movement in Santana's eye that caused her to cave first and smile. The sight of Coney Island came into view and she couldn't hold back her excitement.  
_

 _"Just as I left it." Santana's smile grew bigger standing next to Dani seeing all the carnival rides throughout the park and the beautiful view of the ocean at the same time. "Let down yet?"_

 _Dani shook her head and blushed finding the camera on her to get a reaction. "This is quite the entrance. Okay, this looks amazing. Here on out, I'll trust your judgement. But you're holding my hand on that thing." She pointed out to the very tall Ferris Wheel out in the distance. Santana was happy she even suggested going on it._

 _Santana cradled her face into Dani's neck and pressed a soft kiss to spot that makes her knees weaken. "Of course, D. And we'll have plenty of time to get our clothes back on before the wheel starts to turn again."_

 _"Oh shut up." Dani chuckled out with her cheeks still blushing, more to the kiss than the offer. "That's totally not what I was thinking about, Tana." Santana gave her a cheeky smile followed by a quick peck to her lips, nearly bouncing in place at how close they were.  
_

 _Santana was close again from saying three little words to Dani. Their day would have to let her figure out whether or not to take that step.  
_

* * *

"Alright, I'll say it. I am really getting sick of this running from monsters that we never knew could even exist." Finn sat down with Rachel to catch their breath from another marathon run they endured. Luckily this particular subway station had tables to sit down at like a little break room. Santana found a crowbar on the ground and used it to pry open a water vending machine. It wasn't her first time breaking into one of those.

"Did anyone get bit or scratched by whatever those things were?" Quinn checked her body along with Rachel's as they were the ones attacked, but neither of them were hurt. "I'm with you too, Finn. So over this shit." She set their water down on the table and checked over with Santana. She was busy looking into what station they were at and how far from Dani's apartment.

"You did a really brave act back there to save me. Thank you." Rachel spoke softly to Finn while they had a few moments to themselves.

"Yeah, I mean...those things just came out of nowhere. I had to do something. We're, like, a team. We watch each other's backs no matter what." He said to her with pride, sensing a softer side to Rachel now than when he talked to her earlier at the party.

Santana scanned over the map to this station. Her eyes slowly trailed to the floor weighing out every option that didn't involve being attacked or killed in the process. "We can't do anymore tunnels, can we?" She whispered out loud enough for Quinn to eavesdrop on the side.

"No. Definitely no more tunnels, Santana." Quinn received a deep sigh from that.

"Then we try again up top. Otherwise we stay here and hope those things don't break through the door." Santana was in that lost position again where she had no control, and she was not liking it one bit. "Well wait a minute. We don't even know where we are right now. It wouldn't hurt to go back above on the streets and see where we are. Right?" It took about five minutes for them to come to the decision that that was their best option at this point. Once they got a little more of a break than the first subway station and hydrated from their water, the group started to move again.

With or without a monster on the loose, an abandoned subway station in the dead of the night was next to the scariest thing of the night. Finn's arson story still wasn't helping them clear their minds either. "The 59th, that's where we are." Santana recognized the station right away and saw the number to it rounding a corner. She took this subway to work sometimes, or stopped at this station halfway to get off to meet up with other friends.

Up the stairs, the four found themselves walking into an empty clothing store with a bright white light shining all around. Mannequins were lying on the floor, some of them missing pieces and broken entirely from possible looting early on.

"Is it over? Did everyone disappear?" Finn questioned and found himself speaking a little too soon when a group of soldiers sprung out from behind one of the register counters with weapons aimed towards them.

"Civilians!" One of the soldiers shouted out and kept his finger on the trigger for any possible reason to shoot. "We've got four civilians, possibly more. No infected or crawlers, over." He radioed in to his commanding officer and received a quick response back, ordering him and his team to bring them in. "Alright, you four come with us. You're safe."

Being lead through the store and soon through a tent that connected to another part of the store, the group saw in front of them a very large medical unit treating dozens of injured and sick civilians. This was the last place Santana wanted to be at this point, thinking this was just stalling her from her real goal. Further along, they saw it was military medicals units spread throughout turning the store into their own hospital.

"Excuse me, officer. We have a friend that's trapped in the middle of the city near Columbus Circle. She's hurt and we need to get to her fast."

"That is not where any of us want to be right now. Whatever the hell that thing is out there, it's winning. No one can even identify what we're up against." The officer shut down to Santana who was not willing to give up fighting just because the military was suddenly involved.

Santana nearly spoke up to protest her case to the officer when a familiar voice rang out over the crowd of other military personnel. All of them froze up.

"Quinn! Santana! Agh fuck. Guys, over here! " It was Sam Evans, live and almost well, laying in a makeshift hospital bed with his wounds being treated to. He was alive and none of the group, especially Quinn, could believe their eyes.

* * *

 **Quick author's note:** Hey! A quick thank you to anyone currently reading the story right now, really hope you're enjoying it so far. I'm leaving this here as an update that I have a chapter planned out that will be completely about the Santana's and Dani's day together in Coney Island. So I look forward to writing that and the rest of the story as well. And I also hope I'm fitting enough into the story itself between moving the plot along and relationships between the characters, it's a new smaller challenge for me. And that's about it, thank you again!


	5. Chapter 5

"Sam!" Quinn about broke down in tears seeing his face again, hearing that voice again in her ears. On a night where chaos and mayhem took the same side, they saw a miracle thrown their way to keep their spirits alive. Quinn rushed past other patients and soldiers along with nurses to kneel down by her boyfriend's side, cupping his face into her soft hands. "You're still alive..."

"Surprisingly, yes I am. Unless you want to strangle me for making you think I was dead?" Sam wasn't missing a beat being a wisecrack to Quinn right away. He never thought he would have the chance again after the bridge attack.

"Not a chance." Quinn looked at his injuries that the nurse next to them was tending to them, including a makeshift cast covering his right wrist, a few cuts along his neck, and his knee had been bruised up during the fall.

The rest of the group caught up with Quinn and looked down to their injured friend, amazed and confused by his death not being real anymore. "I knew a damn monster could keep those lips closed for good. Shame on me for thinking so." Santana quirked to him before giving him a quick hug. "What the hell even happened?"

Sam shrugged his shoulders, creeping a smile to his face to Santana's comment. "I honestly am as surprised as you are. Really. I remember looking back to see you guys on the bridge stopped, I was going to push my way back when I heard screaming. I look up and see this thing's tail or arm, whatever the fuck, just obliterate the bridge in half. Hit some land and ended up in the water, I passed out." He explained to them and on camera where Finn was filming. "The military came by looking for survivors and that's where they found me, here I am. I'm more happy that you're all okay too."

"Oh my god, dude. If you saw the shit we've been through to get here..." Finn shook his head tempted to show him exactly what he meant on the camera's video.

Rachel whipped her head around upon hearing her name being yelled out. A few of her friends had also made it to this certain military point, Kurt and Mercedes, and waved over to her. "Oh my gosh! You guys!" She ran over to them to give them a hug, forming a frown over onto Santana's face.

"I really hate to be that buzzkill right now Evans, but Dani is still in trouble and I have to leave to get her."

"Not by yourself, are you?" Sam sat up like he wanted to volunteer his help. With his injuries, he wouldn't make it that far. "Not on your own, Santana. What if you don't get as lucky?" Santana gave him a shrug of her shoulders, not caring what really happens as long as she got to see Dani again tonight.

"I'm going one way or another. They probably have some sort of extraction plan or something for us." Santana looked around for an officer in charge to talk to, and spotted one with a higher rank posted on his arm than the others. "I'll be right back."

"Santana." Sam called out to her but to no avail. Literally nothing could stop Santana when she had her own mission in mind. "You two have to go with her and make sure she gets back with Dani. I would go if my knee wasn't banged up." Quinn shot a look towards him, like she would rather stay with Sam than to go back out there to who knows what else.

"Yeah, gotcha. I'll go with her." Finn agreed to the task. Plus he wanted to catch their daring rescue on film along with possible sightings of the monster up close. "I totally envy you right now, Sam. Every time we catch our breath, we're running again. I'd kill to lay down."

"Slay that dragon thing and you can." Sam smirked up to him as Finn would love to slay a dragon like he and Sam have done together in video games. Quinn leaned down to press her lips against Sam's for a kiss, a kiss she thought she would never experience in her life again.

On the other side of the room, Finn had followed Santana over to where she was close to unleashing Snixx upon the commanding officer. He was refusing to let her leave the perimeter under any circumstances, almost ignoring her angry cries towards him.

Many patients and soldiers around watched the scene play out in front of them, including Rachel off to the side with her friends. A few lower ranking recruits walked on over looking to secure Santana and calm her down, but were waved off by the officer.

"Miss please, we are doing everything we can to fight back. The best choice we have for you is to stay here right now." The officer reasoned with her the best he could. "It's not in the cards for us, ma'am."

"I don't need you guys if you're not willing to help me get her." Santana reasoned back to him as polite as she could remain.

"I am not willing to jeopardizing this entire operation for one single person." The officer argued to her. "We have evacuation choppers coming in and out for civilian extraction. That's where you'll go instead. You have no idea what is out there right now."

"I don't fucking care what's out there!" Santana lashed out. Finn made sure to catch the 'personality swap' secretly on the camera as Santana Lopez was no longer present. Snixx had taken over and gone into full effect. "The woman I love more than anything in the entire world is dying right now and it is all my fault. I'm the only one here in this fucking place that can go and save her in time. She should have been with us tonight and right here for the evacuation and I let her go, I fucking let her get away from me." Between a combination of seeing red from anger and a fresh batch of tears forming in her eyes, Santana grew exhausted of being told what to do at what time. For Dani's sake, she held herself together. "I understand that this wasn't expected by anyone with a brain that we would be under attack. But I'm leaving this place and bringing her back. You want to stop me? Fucking shoot me."

No time was left for anyone to cut in, respond, or react to what Santana just did to a commanding officer. With her final words, she scouted for the nearest exit sign she could find and went for it. No time left because the next second were filled with shouts from nurses left and right screaming about an injured civilian with a bite sustained from one of the crawlers. The poor patient had blood dripping drown from their eyes, their skin quickly turning pale white and walking like a zombie. They were brought behind a white curtain to get treatment right away, but it was too late for them.

Finn couldn't bare to watch the sight and was grabbed by a few soldiers and led to where Santana was heading toward the exit far away from where the sick and injured were being treated.

"Corporal Schuester?" The rookie soldier asked as to what they were specifically doing.

"At ease, private. We shouldn't even be doing this. I guess there's not much else we can do at this point anyway." Corp. Schuester shook his head to each situation going on tonight. They weren't meant for this kind of attack. He heard Santana's rant, as if that was hard not to hear it, and thought he would do the same for his family. "You said this person is stuck in Columbus Circle?"

"Yeah, that's where she is." Santana's voice came out merely a whisper to the Corporal. Snixx had basked in her five seconds of fury and was shoved back down deep inside her cage. He led them down a small series of hallways that were used to get to the original store from the station on the outside.

"I won't stop you from going but you have to listen to me on this. Listen to me very carefully." Schuester sound worried himself by the tone in his voice like he saw that the future, and this was his supposed last night to live. "The government plans on hitting this monster with something big, real big. And if that doesn't work, there are talks to destroy the entire city to make up for it to stop it at all costs. The last evacuation helicopters will take off at 0600. If you can make it back here by then, they'll fly you out of here."

Finn looked at his watch, seeing that was only a given few hours from now. Santana thanked the officer and pushed her way towards the exit door and stopped upon hearing approaching footsteps running in their direction.

"Wait up, I'm coming with you." Quinn sprinted towards Santana and Finn surprising them greatly. Both had thought she stayed behind with Sam and Rachel.

"Quinn...you don't have to." Santana spoke, confused by her actions. "Sam is alive and I don't want you to be at risk for splitting up again." Quinn didn't see it that way at all. The risks were everywhere tonight, what was the harm in jumping head first anymore?

"I do have to. If I hadn't followed you before, who knows where I would've ended up. You led me here back to Sam, I'm leading you back to Dani. That's final. Let's go get her." Santana was now too focused and too driven to talk Quinn out of anything at this point. They were so close to her now and she didn't want to stop, nor let anything in her path stop her.

"Alright. I can't ask anything else from you guys at this point except try not to die." If Santana would allow herself to, she would've admitted to them that the only way she would go out tonight is in Dani's arms and no other way. If there was a chance of her own death tonight, she was going to have it her way.

* * *

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Santana muttered out loud.

"No way." Finn looked on ahead of them to the sight that froze he, Quinn, and Santana in their tracks. Their small rest at the subway station was enough motivation to keep themselves moving despite having been in constant chase all night. "That's not Dani's apartment, is it?

"Yeah Finn, that's her place. All the way at the fucking top..."

Most days they found it hard to believe that between being a waitress and booking small time gigs that Dani resided in a building in this location of the city. And that was a little something that Dani personally enjoyed was doing the impossible. In this situation, not so much. Not when her apartment building had been sideswiped by the monster at some point during its rampage and was leaning against the building adjacent to it.

"Last chance to bail if you want to. Otherwise, the opposite building is where we head into, climb up to where D's apartment is wedged against, and we can climb down to her place through the roof. Sound good?"

"Sure. We've been running around all night, now we can add apartment scaling to the list. Great. Can we do base jumping next?"

"Come on, Finn. It'll be fun and it'll remind me of all the fun times you had in gym class." Quinn hit him with the flashbacks to rock climbing in gym class. Being as tall as he was, he sometimes found difficulty with the task unlike his other classmates.

"Ha, yeah. Remember how fast Mike Chang would climb the rock wall? I swear he was raised in like a jungle or something."

Lighthearted moments they shared amongst each other were taken and valued more tonight than they were usually. That was the perk given to being out and about with a monster running lose and being on a suicide mission at the same time.

Each step towards the almost fallen apartment building caused Santana's nerves to tingle in her body. The possibility of debris hitting them or any more of the crawlers inside, not to mention either building itself could collapse at any moment shoved other thoughts in her head away. Those thoughts were blocking out Dani being hurt or worse, and those thoughts had no right to be placed in her head.

Inside the lobby of the first building they walked inside, looking around at how destroyed the place looked on the inside. Debris fallen from the ceiling and broken off the wall, clumps of dust from withered away brick, electricity for the lights certainly out. It was as if the place had been picked clean, leaving the brochure stand knocked over to the round. Quakes from the ground had knocked over most of the chandeliers in the middle of the floor. With no electricity working for the time being, they had to take the stairs up to get to the rooftop.

"Hey, here's a suggestion. After the military obliterates the monster and we get back to our normal lives after tonight, can we just not move any of our muscles for like a week?"

Santana mentally agreed with Finn on that one. Her calves were getting the workout of a lifetime tonight. "Absolutely. Forget Japan for a week, I'll take a nap instead. A week long nap." The stair climb felt like a huge hiking journey upwards, and the faint taste of blood filled the back of their throats after the first ten flights up. "Christ, dude. We have to be close to the roof is by now. Fortieth floor should be high enough."

They pushed themselves over the limit for seven more flights of stairs and resorted to skipping a step with a small jump to pace themselves further. Seventeenth floor they were at, rushing down the hall to find an empty room on the left side of the building where the opposite apartment building had crashed into. "There we go. No guts no glory, right?" Santana led them carefully around the wreckage and tipped over furniture, pacing themselves to climb over to the roof of the fallen apartment building. "We can use the pipes to balance and scale across. Finn, don't drop my camera off the roof please."

Finn gripped the camera securely into his hand climbing out of the window to look out at the roof, and his other main goal being not to look down at the ground. The sounds of helicopters sounded through the sky still, Finn assumed it was still the military so they wouldn't lose sight of the monster. "Sure, right. Let me forget that we can fall at any moment off the roof and go splat."

"Not tonight." Santana went first and climbed out of the building, carefully dropping down to the adjacent building. Quinn followed her next, grasping onto the pipes to keep herself steady, and Finn chose the best time to get this apartment scaling on footage, one-handing his way in the back to follow. He made sure to capture the view of the city destruction thrown into a dark smoke filled mess. Santana scaled rather quickly than the other two carefully. She balanced herself with her feet resting on the pipes and boosting herself off an air conditioner to catch her hand onto the door that would take them into the building. The slanted surface made it that much more difficult to walk on.

"In here, Quinn." Santana pried the door open for the blonde to squeeze her way inside. Finn climbed through next after her, and then Santana as she shut the door behind them. "Dani's room is on the forty-seventh floor, it's not that far from up here. Just one last push."

"We're right behind you, Santana."

"Right, and I'll get the better reunion of the night on film." Finn promised with a cheeky smile. Thirty more seconds, they caught their breath and raced down staircase after staircase. Fiftieth floor passed, forty ninth floor passed, forty eighth floor passed. Forty seventh floor they were.

Santana took off and bolted down the hallway. "Dani! Dani we're here!" The Latina burst into Dani's apartment when the door was halfway open as it was, taking slower steps inside when she saw how leveled and destroyed the once beautiful apartment was. Photos were knocked over, her guitars smashed and flattened by more debris.

"Whoa..." Finn whispered at the sight.

"Oh my god, Dani..." Underneath clumps of concrete and a fallen over shelf was Dani, knocked unconscious. "Finn put that camera down and help me." Setting the camera on the ground directed at them, Finn helped Santana and Quinn pull off the objects Dani was trapped under. Santana knelt by her side, resting the singer up against her knee and cupping her face. Tears welled up in her eyes to see Dani like this. Her fingers traced through her blonde hair, gazing down at the person she believed was the light of her entire life.

"I'm here, D. I'm right here." Santana pressed their foreheads together searching for a beacon of hope that the worst hadn't happened, that she didn't get there too late. As she caressed the side of Dani's cheek one last time, she felt movement. There in her arms, Dani slowly came back into consciousness and opened her eyes, Santana Lopez being the first thing she saw.

"Santana." Her voice was soft and weak regaining her strength back through her body to move. "You came back for me..."

"Of course I came back. I couldn't leave without you or without knowing you were okay. I'm sorry it took me so long to get here." She smiled through her tears to keep them at bay. "I wouldn't leave without you."

"She went through hell to get here. Dragged us along with her but it was definitely worth seeing that you're okay." Quinn explained to Dani figuring she would spare her the details until they were out of the city before the military starts to firebomb it.

"You're crazy." Dani gazed up into Santana's eyes and instantly forgave her for everything they fought about earlier in the night.

"You know I would do anything for you." Santana leaned for a kiss, soft and gentle but with enough passion behind it to give Dani a small adrenaline rush throughout her body. Finn caught the moment on camera and smiled at their reunion, and also caught a quick glimpse at the time displaying on the small monitor.

"Hey guys. Not to step on this amazing moment here but we should really start to head back to the military base. We barely have an hour before they total the fucking city."

"What? What's going on? Agh..." Dani sat up with a sharp pain in her ribs suffered from being trapped underneath the concrete pieces. Santana helped her to her feet, throwing Dani's arm over her shoulder for support. Her and Finn both opened their mouths to explain just exactly what kind of hell Quinn described, but they were cut off by a loud screech. Turning their heads toward the city itself, they saw the monster crashing its body against the skyscrapers around it, leaving even more destruction in its wake. And it was heading straight at them.

"That's not good..."


End file.
